Updated: Dec. 1, 2005
Legal challenge to World Cup ticket sales
BERLIN, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Germany's consumer association launched a legal challenge on Thursday against the conditions under which some tickets for next year's World Cup finals are being sold.
The complaint concerns fans who applied in November to be placed on a waiting list for anticipated returns.
The association complains that applicants have to pay in advance without knowing whether they will get a ticket and are automatically charged a five euro ($5.89) service fee whether successful or not.
It also says that unsuccessful applicants will get their money back only after the World Cup.
The consumer body has asked a court in Frankfurt to make the German Football Association (DFB) adjust the conditions.
It said that the DFB had not revised its conditions by a certain deadline and that a DFB offer of talks was unacceptable.
'We want to ensure that fans mainly experience excitement over the World Cup rather than frustration about ticket allocations,' Patrick von Braunmuehl, the consumer association's deputy head, said in a statement.
World Cup organising committee vice president Horst Schmidt said he regretted the challenge, but said he was untroubled by it. He argued the organisers were simply giving fans a further chance to buy tickets.
He added organisers responded to reasonable criticism, but this was neither sound nor constructive.
'It cannot be ruled out that some will try to use the prominent platform that the 2006 World Cup offers for their own purposes,' Schmidt said.
TICKETS UNPAID
Those on the waiting list had to pay up front because tickets may only be made available a few days before a given match, he said, adding about 40,000 people in the first sale round had not subsequently paid for their ticket allotment.
'I am totally convinced that there is no better system,' Schmidt said.
The European Commission is also looking into complaints about the way soccer's governing body FIFA is selling the waiting list slots.
In May, the Commission forced organisers to change a system for selling the tieckts after complaints that it favoured credit card company Mastercard, one of the sponsors of the tounament.
World Cup organisers said on Thursday 61,000 applications for 140,000 tickets had been received in the conditional ticket offer running from Nov. 2 to Nov. 30.
Returned tickets are expected from national associations, sponsors or partners.
A third round of ticket sales begins on Dec. 12, three days after the World Cup draw. About 300,000 tickets will then be available and applications will have to be in by Jan. 15. Allocations will again be based on a lottery.
The World Cup runs from June 9 to July 9 and features 32 teams playing a total of 64 matches in 12 venues across Germany, with the final in Berlin.
